• 14.8 million Americans are unemployed.¹
• The unemployment rate for Blacks is 16.1%. For the other groups, the unemployment rate is whites (8.7%), Latinos (12.4%) and Asians (6.4%). ²

• Despite the diversity efforts made in the last years, Blacks remain in lower-level positions in the workplace. "Whites held 78.3% of all management, professional and related occupations while only 8.3% were held by African-Americans."³ The organization also reported that "91.1% of all corporate officers were white as opposed to 2.6% African-American."⁴ By the same token, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that 29,627 Blacks were executive/senior level officials and managers out of a total workforce of 50,632,556 in 2008. Yet, 326,438 were considered first/mid-level officials and managers.⁵

• Ursula Burns is the only African-American women to head a Fortune 500 company. In the past, there have been fewer than ten Blacks who have made it to this level. Today, only a handful of Blacks remain CEOs of major American companies including American Express’ Ken Chenault; Clarence Otis of Darden Restaurants; Delphi’s Corporation Rodney O’Neal; Aetna’s Ronald Williams.

Sources:

1.http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm